Wall Street looks poised to open higher

Wall Street appeared poised to open higher Tuesday, as U.S. stock futures climbed ahead of the opening bell.

KEEPING SCORE: Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 76 points, or 0.5 percent, to 16,256 as of 8:40 a.m. Eastern time. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures were up eight points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,858 and Nasdaq futures were up 16 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,627.

HOW CONFIDENT?: At 10 a.m. Eastern, the Conference Board reports on consumer confidence in March. The private group's confidence gauge is expected to show a small gain in February, with a reading of 78.8, according to the data provider FactSet.

HOUSING WATCH: The Commerce Department will issue its report on new-home sales in February. Economists predict that sales dipped 4.9 percent to an annual rate of 445,000 last month, according to FactSet.

TREASURYS AND COMMODITIES: The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed to 2.76 percent from 2.73 percent late Monday. The price of crude oil rose 55 cents to $100.15 a barrel. Gold sank $2.80 to $1,308.40 an ounce.